Magwe Regional Court on Thursday reduced the sentences of five members of the now defunct Unity Journal to seven years following an appeal.

The five individuals— CEO Tint Hsan and reporters Lu Maw Naing, Sithu Soe, Aung Thura and Yazar Oo—were initially given a 10-year jail sentence in July after being found guilty of “exposing state secrets” following the journal’s publishing of an article alleging the existence of a secret chemical weapons factory in central Burma.

According to the wife of convicted reporter Lu Maw Naing, the regional court reduced the sentences on Thursday morning. However, she said, the five have vowed to lodge another appeal in Burma’s Supreme Court in Naypyidaw because “their sentences are not in line with freedom of the press”.

Speaking to DVB in June, the Italian town’s mayor Cristina Merusi said: “Freedom of information is the basis of democracy in a free country. To support this freedom that we have through journalism and those who practice it, we decided to honour the five journalists of Unity Weekly in Burma through an act which for us is very important— honorary citizenship of our town.”

*Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.